Hello All, I purchased a 2012 CC in May which is my first motorcycle! I usually ride around town, but hit the highway this past weekend riding about 150 miles! After 10-15 minutes of riding both hands were tingling and falling asleep! Then about 50 miles into the ride my lower back was hurting! I could go to the dealer for advice, but figured I would ask for ideas/suggestions from here before I start handing the dealer my money for stuff that may or may not work! I really look forward to your responses, since if I have to look forward to that every ride, there may not be any more long ones!

If this is ur first motorcycle then it's not really uncommon for u to be a little sore after a long ride to help with the tingling need to get a pair of good gloves that will help mine has done that for years and on different bikes as for the back a backrest helps a lot

I find a rider backrest to be a must for me. Getting one from Victory is difficult right now because they are in the middle of changing the vendor who makes them for Vic. An alternative is Utopia Backrests.

Like mentioned a pair good full finger gloves with some padding will help with any handlebar vibration and maybe for some reason you are prone to it more than others or maybe there's something going on with the bike to cause an excessive amount of vibration in the bars. No way to know without riding it.

There are vibration dampening devices. Most people seem to be happy with the Vibranators.

I agree, its your first bike, take it easy, maybe go on a couple 50 mile trips to get use to the bike, then work your way up. Figure out then what you like and don't like and make adjustments. My right shoulder gets sore on my 2012 xc after a while because the bars sit to low for me, but I don't really want apes either because my hands sit behind the fairing, out of the wind.

Hello All, I purchased a 2012 CC in May which is my first motorcycle! I usually ride around town, but hit the highway this past weekend riding about 150 miles! After 10-15 minutes of riding both hands were tingling and falling asleep! Then about 50 miles into the ride my lower back was hurting! I could go to the dealer for advice, but figured I would ask for ideas/suggestions from here before I start handing the dealer my money for stuff that may or may not work! I really look forward to your responses, since if I have to look forward to that every ride, there may not be any more long ones!

I found myself squeezing the right grip too hard in a subconscious effort to kept it from slipping. I realized after a while that there was no need, and my hand no longer gets numb. As for the back pain, if you're under 5'10", you may need some longer bars as you may be leaning too forward.

If your bike fits you like mine did, you will need to have someone make your seat to move you forward an inch or two. Yea the "Cool" feet and arms streched out is not condusive to long rides. You should be sitting straighter and arms comfortably bent. Can you reach the locks without streching? If so, do you have any room. Try it turning, not sitting, it will tell you more. You'll find you have more control too. Scoot up on the seat and you might be amazed.

+1 on the Utopia. Lots of adjustment and that may help you decide how much you need to move.

I bought mine to replace a Wing that I never got cozy with. A seat moving me forward and into a correct position has made this something I can not only live with, I don't think about my back hurting any more. I knew a seat was in my future because I have never had a stock seat of any kind work well for me.

You need to relax and be comfortable for maximum long-distance riding ability. To help in that respect, these are some options:

- Try pullback handlebars. You need to be able to have some bend in your elbows, so you're not stretching to reach the grips.

- Try the Utopia backrest. I don't find the need for one (yet?) on my XCT, but I had a Utopia on my Valkyrie Interstate for seven years. Good company, quality stuff. (And if you search here, you'll come across a lot of people getting the Utopia with the smaller "police" pad, which doesn't seem to be advertised.)

- You might also want to try a pair of overpants. There are a lot of these pants; I wear the First Gear HT Overpants ( http://www.webbikeworld.com/r2/firstgear/ht-overpants/ ), but any will do. I find it much easier to do 500-, 600-mile days with overpants. They add cushioning, and also let you slide around in the seat more easily; anything that tends to trap you into one position is going to get in the way of comfort after a couple of hours.

- No "death grip" on the grips. In my first few years of riding, I would remind myself of this by making a circle with my right thumb and forefinger, and just holding the throttle for a while with that circle.This is a reminder that just a little effort will get the job done when just cruising along. (And don't forget the cruise control. And don't forget that your left hand, especially, can be rested on your thigh, with or without the cruise on.)

- You may want more cushioned gloves. I mostly wore an Olympia "gel pad" pair for a couple of years; other brands make gel pads, too. My current three main pairs go one step further, with special placement of padding, for better cushioning and carpal-tunnel-syndrome prevention. I have a summer and a cooler weather pair from Qwi ( http://www.qwinerveprotector.com/MotorcycleGlove.html ) and a summer pair from Bionic ( http://www.bionicgloves.com/shop/?cat=35&id=35 , which is the pair I wear most often).

- The Vibranator keeps getting sterling reviews in the various motorcycle magazines (I subscribe to Rider, Cycle World, Motorcyclist, Motorcycle Consumer News, and get the AMA monthly as part of membership, and several of these have reviewed it in the last few months). There were devices with similar function in earlier years - Bar Snake, lead shot, etc. - but the Vibranator is more sophisticated and weighs less.

- To make sure your XCT doesn't have a personal problem that should be addressed by the dealer, it'd be nice if you could ride someone else's bike, or maybe your dealer has a demo available; another XC or XCT would be nice.

- It's possible you may need a custom seat, but that's a last resort, after trying some or all of the above. That will be the most expensive option, and also might entail your losing the heated capability.

[EDIT addition: Another thing came to mind. What RPM do you cruise at? IMHO - and others may disagree, of course - you should be tooling along somewhere between, oh, 2,200 and 2,900, in general. At any rate, if you typically cruise at, say, 4,000 RPM, you're going to subject yourself (and the bike) to unnecessary vibration. I'm not talking about rolling-it-on periods - for fun, passing, just upshifting, etc. - I'm talking about steady-state cruising.]

- And, as mentioned, you have to work up to long rides, just so your body gets used to the position(s), and maybe you develop a little more muscle tone in the areas that get taxed by just sitting straight and (lightly) holding the bars.

How 'bout you help us out, by providing your height, inseam, sleeve length, and age, if you don't mind?

That's a mighty big bike to start out with. Have you been riding other bikes before, e.g., that you didn't own?

I recommend making a conscious effort to ride with good posture. Poor posture throws everything off and can cause the problems you are describing. A backrest can help but if you use/develop your core muscles instead it will help with controlling the bike also.

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